Method and apparatus for depositing a weighed fill in a receptacle



Nov. 17, 1953 D. E. LOUD ETAL. 2,659,562

' METHOD AND A OR DEPOS NG RA F 4 A WEIGHED FILL A RECEPTA Filed Jan.31, 1950 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN V EN TORS.

gmald 67 KM.

D. E. CLOUD ET AL METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DEPOSITING Nov. 17, 1953 AWEIGHED FILL IN A RECEPTACLE 4 Sheets-Sheet 35 Filed Jan. 51,- 1950 m mm m NOV. 17, 1953 D. CLOUD r 2,659,562

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DEPOSITING A WEIGHED FILL IN A RECEPTACLE FiledJan. 31, 1950 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 IN VEN TORS.

Patented Nov. 17, 1953 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DEPOSITING A WEIGHEDFILL IN A BECEPTACLE Donald E. Cloud and William S. Cloud, Wilmette,

111.; said Donald E. Cloud assignor to said William S. Cloud ApplicationJanuary 31, 1950, Serial No. 141,522

11 Claims.

lhis invention relates to a new and improved apparatus for depositing ina receptacle a fill of predetermined weight.

Although the invention is illustrated and described herein relating tothe packaging of nuts, it should be understood that this is illustrativeonly and that the principles of the invention can be applied to any fillwhich will flow by gravity and which small enough to be containedentirely within the pockets on the filling drum, whether the fill be apowdery substance such as sugar, soap chips or the like or smallparticles such as nuts, pieces of popcorn or the like, or even a liquid.

Several methods and machines have already been proposed for making up afill to a predetermined weight a weighing process and de positing it ina receptacle. None appear to provide a fast, accurate machine suitablefor a production line.

The present invention accomplishes this with the aid, of a filling drumwhich initially feeds an almost complete fill and then dribbles smalladditions thereto. A scale weighing the accumulated fill trips a weighthas been reached so that thereafter the dribbles are diverted; Aquick-acting throv over device ensures accuracy.

While the scale is performing its weighing function it performs no otherwork has the greatest possible dependability in accurate weighing.

In order to illustrate the respective steps of the invention, theaccompanying drawings have been provided in which:

Figure 1 fragmentary view of an apparatus for practicing the invention,shown mainly in vertical section, some details being omitted forclarity.

Figure 2 a similar view of the lower portion of the apparatus seen in Fiure 1 illustrating the releasing of the weighed-out fill.

Figure 3 is a top view of several of the balance beams and associatedparts, some details being omitted for clarity, the weighing bucketuppermost on the sheet being in emptying position, the others inreceiving position.

Figure 4 is a side elevation of the apparatus illustrating themotivating means.

Figure 5 is a perspective exploded view of the balance beam andassociated parts.

Figure 6 is a .detailsectional view through the weighing bucket, takenapproximately on the line 5-5 of Figure 1.

Figure '7 is an end view of a beam weightv deflector when the right andhence mounted on and turned by shat 2.

Although the law requires a full and exact description of at least oneform of the invention, such as that which follows, it is, of course, thepurpose of a patent to cover each new inventive concept therein nomatter how it may later be disguised by variations in form or additionsof further improvements; and the appended claims are intended toaccomplish this purpose by particularly pointing out the parts,improvements or combinations in which the inventive concepts are found.

General description Referring to Figure l, a filling drum l is One ormore series of recesses or pockets are provided in the surface offilling drum I, only one being in the section chosen for the drawings.Preferably the first pocket 3 of each series is of such size that whenlevelly filled the fill therein will weigh just short of the desiredweight, and each of the remaining pockets i are of such size that whenlevelly filled the fill of each pocket will be a fraction of thedifference between the weight of the fill of the first pocket and thedesired weight but the total weight of the fill of all the remainingpockets will be enough more than said difference to allow a safe marginin case the fill is of exceptionally low density.

All of the pockets are so shaped that as the rotation of filling drumcarries them by hopper ll they will pick up and retain a fill which isleveled by brush l mounted on shaft 8. Further rotation of filling drum.I permits the fill to fall into weighing pan or bucket Q positionedbeneath each series of pockets. To ensure that the fill will drop intobucket 9, a downwardly sloping shelf it may be provided. However, thebottoms of the pockets are sloped rearwardly enough to empty the pocketsat a high enough point so that the fill will mostly fall directly intobucket 9.

Bucket 9 is provided with a back or divider l2 and is pivotally mountedon balance beam I3 well in advance thereof so that the fill willautomatically tend to center near the rear of weighing compartment l iso as not to dump it prematurely. The material falls uniformly enough tominimize any inaccuracy in weighing which varying positioning of thefill in the weighing compartment might cause. This centering action maybe furthered by biasing downwardly to the position shown the rear ofcompartment M by side wall extensions [6. It is desirable to providestop i1 so the bucket will always come to rest in the same position. Thelong weighing changes in position of the of the lead relatively .111 ref'a-blv temporary support iii ture tilting of the the balance 13 n.downwardly so that roller roclis bucket El to spill the weighed on. The

structure the .e such that this fill will pass mediately down. chute 19into receptacles ill posttioned therebelow, or an intermediate bin orholding ll) may provided as preferred when acrelease of the fill isdesire for any reason. eptacles 2i could be the oeptacles ultimate to befilled, but have been shown as part or a conveyor.

After the i3 tips and bucket swings to the position, the dribbles fromsubsequent no all on divider now swung to a do and rearward angle asshown in Figure ani pass down between side wall on tensions it, "ownchute 223 to a storage bin (not shown) from which they can be returnedto hop per any desired means.

Accuracy in to a large it ht upon the 'th wli ch delivery or iaterial tothe w ment is interi .pted after the "ll 7 to tilt the scales. Several fatures of the a paratus are directed toward attaining the desirablespeed. One feature is the positioning of weighing bucket 9 on balancebarn Balance beam pivotally mounted on pivot has counterweig' t mountedclose to the pivot point and eighing bucket ll mounted as away fro i the1: point as is convenient in the design of the appantus. Counterweight2e; preferably is screwed onto balance beam it and here. by airbagnwedpin 2'5 applied to the ore-- propriate reoe s 233 in its end, so that adelicate adjustment may be maintained. Thus, balance beam itself willreact very quickly to the do- An additional feature is the prov; on ofmeans for throwing balance bear it do; y soon as commences to t 't. Theleast tilting beam it causes lrn e bly mounted at the end of beam. it!

i by thumb screw to en -eel rotating on i ia'ft w. 11 e beain iiiclow-.=.vardly faster than 1". one to gravity alone, to prevent .01131fill from remaining pool rots 1 to weighing bucket At the end oi eachweighing operation whee. 32 is swung away from balance it thatcounterweight it can position it for the neat weighing operation.

more fills are required than can thus be weighed out with balance bears,a plurality of independently acting balance beams l3 and associatedparts in by side 'elationship can be provided, as is best illustrated inFigure 3. A single filling drum 1 may have a series of pockets over eachbalance beam i3.

Drive mechanism The apparatus, as best illustrated in Figure 4;, isshown driven from a single motor by a iseries of chains. Modificationswhereby several motors, belts or gears are provided are within the scopeof the invention.

Drum 1 is shown driven in a counter-clockwise direction by chain 3S,passing around sprocket Zi'i mounted on shaft of motor 39 and sprocketll mounted on shaft 2.

Brush l is driven in a counter-clockwise di rection by roller chainii-i, passing around sprocket mounted on shaft it and sprocket 4 mountedon shaft 53.

Gear mounted on shaft ll and driven in a counter clockwise direction bychain it, passing around sprocket 49 mounted on shaft 4"! and sprocket5i mounted on shaft meshes with gear 52 mounted on shaft to drivetoothed wheel 32 in a clockwise direction.

Shaft is mounted in bearing blocks mounted on lever arm 54 which ispivotally mounted on and may oscillated bifurcated lever slidably guidedby shaft The outwardly swinging action of wheel de scribed above, whichallows balance beam 13 to be repositioned for the following weighingoper-- ation, is caused by the action or cam 59; on cam follower rollermounted. on lever 55. Wheel is returned to position for the followingweighing by spring 55!, biasing lever inwardly.

Support it; may be swung upwardly at the appropriate time to providesupport for balance beam it, as described above. To this end bell cranklever Si carrying support It and pivotally mounted on shaft E2 ispivoted to swing holder Iii up to supporting position by the outwardmovement of lever arm with which it has a bifurcated connection. Leverarm 53, pivotaliy supported by pin mounted on the frame, is movedoutwardly by the action of cam 67, rotating with shaft 2, on camfollower cc, mounted on lever arm 63. A soft pad is on support If aholding bin Zii is desired, its bottom ll mounted on shaft it may bepivoted to empty the bin by the outward motion of bifurcated lever 55,described above, acting through le or arm l9 and lever arm which ispivotally Sill?" ported by pin 32 mounted on the frame and connectedwith shaft by lever 6S and This permits accurate timing oi the dis--charge, a feature especially desirable for (if. charging into a conveyorwhen its receptacles are properly positioned.

Further details As seen in Figure 5, balance beam may be supported bysleeve it which may be pivoted 2y bearings ill in its opposite ends.These bearings may be ball bearing units with the inner races pressed onpivot reduced at both ends to fit in bearing cups formed by screws 3:5.Screws till are adjustable in brackets to to have a smooth bearingengagement with pivot Both this bearing and the ball bearing must failbefore any great inaccuracy results. The parts of beam 13 extending inopposite directions from sleeve 36 may be welded in recesses in thesleeve.

A seal fol the bottom of bin ii may conveniently be formed by a brush Mas shown in Figures 1 and 2.

A guard plate Q2 may be positioned in front of bucket 9, but not quitetouching it, to stop the occasional nut or the like which mightotherwise bounce out of the bucket.

Smooth tipping action of bucket 9 as it is lowered against roller 22 maybe ensured by placing a block 83 to roll on roller An important featurof the invention is the fact that the scale is afforded the utmostdependability because of the fact that the weight of the material in thescale pan 9 is not required to perform any work other than overcomingthe biasing namely weight 26. Even the operation of a switch by theweight of the material can introduce variables making the we'iglingoperation less dependable. The material in the pan merely moves a keymember (knife tip 29) into the orbit of a constantly moving trip device(wheel 32) which, thus eifectuated, performs all the necessary work ofactuating the stop device (divider 52) to instantly prevent furtherdelivery to the pan and operating the pan to spill the weighed outmaterial from the pan. Other feed and delivery, weighing, trip, keyingand stop devices could be used without discarding the eneralcombination, although the specine forms have advantages. For example, indelivering the stream of material to the pan, the drum feeder l isbetter than prior feeders because it permits accurate control andvariation of the delivery speed. With less exact control erratic surgeswould be likely to cause excesses in the final weight, especially if themaximum desired speed were normally maintained. The drum feeder alsolends itself readily to provision of a plurality of side-by-side scales.

At the present time twelve scales are used, and twenty will be providedin the nest machine. Each of them fills a separate hole g; bin All ofthese holding bins are dumped simultaneously to fill the same number ofreceptacles 2: on the conveyor. The conveyor may move continuously ifthe receptacles are reasonably longer length wise of the conveyor thanthe corresponding dimension of the chutes l The conveyor may dump thesuccessive rece taclee into a bag filling spout with accurately timedintervals by passing around a small sprocket. The two lines ofreceptacles 25 are staggered so that if they deliver to the same spoutthe timing is still uniform. With uniform timing a good operator canapply bags to receive 66 charges a minute.

With some materials (such as granulated sugar) the successive incrementsof material would be uniform enough so as to amount to a uniform streamand provide uniform fills if the ti ling of the interruption is uniform.W ith nuts. however, each smaller pocket 43 may hold only one nut andwould vary in and exceptionally large ones might even be brushed out bybrush 6'. Accordingly it is preferred to so space the pockets that thewei hing and the flipping of divider it can be completed between thefalling of charges from adjacent pockets i. The quick tripping mechanismpermits these pockets to be quite close together. The frequency withgates ll are opened must be timed for the slowest instances of fillingh0lding bins Eli. Hence the dependability of drum 1 and the speed of thetripping mechanism combine to permit a high frequency of cycles of theIna-- chine to yield a substantially higher speed than was formerlybelieved possible with equal accuracy. This is especially importantwhere a multiplicity of weighing units is combined with a jointly timedrelease (for example, to fill the re ceptacles on one conveyor).

The brush l is preferably adjustable toward or from the drum l to varythe quantity of fill. The draftsman has shown it somewhat to the left ofits preferred position, which is at the top of drum I. Any convenientmeans for agitating the material in hopper 8 may be provided,

such as 'sinuous'wiresextending around and carried by drum .l betweenthe various series of pockets, none .showing in the plane of Figure lwhich is through one series of pockets.

When large nuts .or pieces of material are present, it may be desired tohave the smaller pockets or the later ones thereof offset from the mainpockets axially of the drum and pass or through a different hopper withsmaller pi ces of material "so that there will be less overweight. Whenjust a few large articles are to be packaged, the main or first pocketneed not be larger than the others.

The pan 9 may hang freely from the Weighing beam [3 during weighing ifdesired for more cer tain or obvious accuracy, although the illustratedarrangement is accurate according to present standards.

In the illustrated apparatus support 28 is effective only at the timethe first fill is deposited in pan 9. With other heavier articles, suchas oranges, or even with some of the heavier varie ties of nuts, it maybe desirable to have support is effective momentarily at the time eachfill is deposited. This may be accomplished by the provision ofadditional, appropriately placed risers on cam 6'7.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for weighing out a predetermined weight of materialincluding a scale having a pen, means for biasing the pan to apredetermined weighing position, means for delivering material to saidpan with small increments predetermine weight is approached, s atus alsoincluding a deflector having ectig position for diverting the deliveryof material to errclude it from the pan, trip means constantly movingbut normally ineffective and rendered effective upon initial movement ofthe pan to trip said deflector to said deflecting'po ion, being free 'tomake said initial movement without performing any worlr other thanovercoming said biasing means.

2. Apparatus for weighing out a predetermined wei ht of materialincluding a scale having a pan,

means for biasing the pan to a predetermined weighing position, meansfor delivering material to said pan with small increments as hepredetermined weight is approached, said apparatus also including adeflector having a deflecting posi tion for diverting the delivery ofmaterial to ozoclude it from the an, trip means constantly moving butnormally ineffective and rendered effective upon initial movement of thepan trip said deflector to said deflecting position empty said pan, saidnan being free to make said initial movement without performing workother than overcoming said biasing means.

3. Apparatus for weighing out a predetermined weight of materialincluding a scale having a pan pivoted thereto, means for biasing thescale to move the pan to a predetermined weighing position, means fordelivering material to said pan with small increments as thepredetermined weight is approached, said pan including a deflectorwhich, in deflecting position, diverts to discharge material approachingthe pan, trip means constantly moving but normally ineffective andrendered effective upon initial movement of the pan to trip said pan tospill its contents and move the deflector to said deflecting position,said pan being free to make said initial movement without performing anywork other than overcoming said biasing means.

4. Apparatus for weighing out a predetermined Weight of materialincluding a scale having a pan pivoted thereto, 1 ans for biasinathescale to move the pan to a predetermined we1ghfor delivering mate ial torents the predeter" p n including setting p o t of the to trip 1 if r!ts and move the he tire upon pan. to

mined weigh a pen, in

ins for deliversm l. increments is pproached, said stop means having aap "he delivery 2 cans constantly ing the preacterm t1 1: also incl tripsaid j ment ovcrcon'iing sai mined Weight ing' a scale havi pan toprede" for delivering the i vohimetrically a 'eria t. sored incl iapproached, c

upon ini" said lacy to it further.

f nding a scale havmovablc with 541 beam member havin Jon rotating in anorbit positioned. ah ;ac'.. Y the key and moving in the direction tomove the l: 1 in the direction is moved by that which it Weighs, andeffective upon initial movement of the beam to engage said key to takecontrol of said beam and move it further; said key being yieldablycarried by beam.

9. A Weighing machine including a scale having a free-Weighing beam, akey carried by the beam, a constantly rotating member having projectionsthereon rotating in an orbit positioned adjacent to the key and movingin the direction to move the beam in the direction it is moved by thatwhich it Weighs, and effective upon initial. movement of the beam toengage said key to take control of said beam and move it further andmeans for separating said rotating member and said key to permit saidbeam to return to the starting position.

10. A weighing machine including a scale haying a free-Weighing beam, akey carried by the beam, a constantly rotating member having projectionsthereon rotating in an orbit positioned. adjacent to the key and movingin direction to move the beam in the direction it is moved by that whichit Weighs, and effective upon initial movement of the beam to engagesaid key to talae control of said beam and move it further and aWeighing pan pivoted to said beam and means for obstructing the movementof part of said pan to tilt it more than the tilting of the beam andspill "he contents therefrom.

1].. A Weighing machine including a scale having a free-weighing beam, acontrol member to be operated when a predetermined weight is reached, aconstanth rotating member having projections thereon, and a keypositioned during Weighing adjacent to the orbit of the projections,carried by the beam and movable by initial movemerit of the beam intosaid orbit to render one of said projections effective for operatingsaid control member.

DONALD E. CLOUD. WILLIAM S. CLOUD.

References Cited in the file of this patent

